A/N:

The second part of my tribute to Khorne is complete. I had to resist an impulse to , at a certain point, channel Bison.

"And I beheld Satan, and he fell from the heavens ... LIKE LIGHTNING."

As usual, thanks to the Editing Gang for their efforts, corrections, clarifications and fixes. They deserve more credit than I do.

Aberron put out a new chapter of Living an Indoctrinated Dream.


'Oh fucking God...it's the Butcher! Run! RUN!'

- Mihkale Cordson, Blue Suns Engineer during the Archangel's Ascent Incident


"Eyewitness reports and transmissions from denizens of Omega on the extranet include footage of what looks to be all out war on Omega tonight, between the many mercenary groups and gangs of the ill-famed pirate station and the mysterious vigilante Archangel. So far, most of the images have been from a great distance, but earlier shots showed thousands of well armed, professional groups headed into the notorious Lowers of Omega to do battle with what the extranet has started to call the 'Turian version of the Punisher' More news as we get additional details - and now, the local sports".

Angel glared at the monitor displaying the news-feed from CoraxNet, before glancing back to Weaver. "Anything useful?"

The balding man shook his head, hands flying over his haptic console and eyes glued to his displays. "Nothing yet. Second tier Blue suns tech-heads were pushing hard on the data net about ten minutes ago, then they just... stopped. All the penetrations." He brought up a second haptic vidscreen, showing flat network activity lines. "Kinda weird."

Angel frowned. "Did they bypass you?"

Weaver shot him a disgusted look before turning back to his monitors. "If they did they'd have blown us up with our own weapons, bossman. No, something else is fucking with them, hard. It's that same funky interference signal we picked up earlier."

Angel rubbed his squared off chin and nodded. "Keep an eye on it. Where is the main body?"

To the right of Weaver, Sensat made a sparse motion with his left hand, pulling down a map of Niftu. "The vorcha are just about on top of the intersection of Venu and Scarth, not twenty meters from Montague. Main body is another five hundred meters back, but about a good hundred scouts from Eclipse are picking their way across the roofs and what not. Gunships formed up and the air cars are two hundred meters out and closing fast on the gate."

The small batarian glanced over his shoulder. "Garrus is inside the inner passage now, making sure the big mine is armed. Montague's... online but silent."

Angel nodded, tapping his commlink. "Monty. Vorcha are passing you now. Do you still have your cams up?"

The voice that answered was quiet. "No. They might pick up the emission. Killed the electronic trigger too, using a blasting cap. I'm dug in pretty deep in this warehouse, lots of cover and crawl-ways They may pass right by me in the confusion."

Angel sagged slightly, his expression tired. "Copy that. We'll be praying. Air cars are... one fifty out and closing, they'll be in your range in... thirty two seconds."

"Vraiment, beau jour pour mourrir. Au revoir, my friends. Detonating in thirty seconds."

Angel killed the comm-line and exhaled. "When he blows it, make sure everything is ready. Let the entire force get inside the narrow confines of the inners before we blow the first trap. If Monty can take down those fucking gunships and we can turn that column into hamburger, they'll pull back."

Sensat smiled at that. "Give us time to get out, you think?"

Angel shrugged. "Maybe. Probably go for the life support and ventilation sector, kill the whole damned district if they can't kill us clean." He smirked. "God, I hope they try."

Weaver snickered. "How long before you think they realize the LSI and vent is super-structured outside the towers?"

Angel shrugged. "A day? I mean, hell, for a long time I figured you could blow the fans up and choke off an entire district. It wasn't until Garrus found those walkways not on the map I realized Aria was a smarter bitch than all of us." He shrugged. "Of course, if they do blow the life support and then get her to cut the vents and power, we're still in trouble. I'm more worried about the innocents who'll die at that point."

Monty's voice broke in. "Here... we go."

Angel held his breath, then winced as the entire warehouse shook with faint vibrations. "My God, what just went up?"

Sensat was trying to find a working camera. "Pillars fall if I know...oh shit. Looks like Monty's plasma conduit crossed some of the fuel supply lines to the factories in the Little Bend." He tapped a set of controls, and a haptic window opened up into what looked like Hell itself.

"...my God."

The entire main path towards the interface of Middle and Upper Niftu was on fire, with most of the warehouses and buildings near where the large plasma conduit that supplied power to Middle Niftu burning wreckage. Hundreds of burning corpses were tossed in every direction, and at five hundred feet out warehouse walls and bulkheads were shattered and charred.

Nothing stirred anywhere near the conduit, and the warehouse Montague was operating from was nothing more than a pile of melted, blasted slag. Weaver crossed himself. "At least he didn't feel shit. Poor bastard."

Angel took a deep breath. "Put up a drone. Figure out where the bastards are."

Sensat's hands were already moving. Another screen opened. "...Looks like the front ranks got a little crispy, but not much real damage... I see gunship wreckage. One... two... some downed air-cars... no sign of the big turian gunship..."

Weaver cursed. "I got it on secondaries. Fucking thing is still airborne. Trailing smoke, landing north of the old Firthen factory. Motherfuck."

Angel nodded. "At least we just killed a fuckton of them."

Sensat tapped something on his keyboard. "The blast also just fired about the first two hundred feet of traps and mines in the passage."

Angel turned to leave. "Maybe that's for the best. Make 'em think the worst is over."

O-TWCD-O

Tazzik smiled grimly as he put down the magnoculars. "And now you begin to see why I had no intention of moving in with that pack of amateurs. But that probably cleared out the worst of it."

Lochinvar Avrensis shrugged. "As you say, Master Tazzik. Things do look a little chaotic down there. Might I suggest that getting closer is exceedingly appalling as a concept, given the traps we've seen them pull off already, and the fact that we have no idea when or where... Butcher... will appear?"

The giant cybernetic salarian lit a cigar, and laughed. "We're safe enough here. The Broker mostly wants combat data. On the Butcher and on this Archangel. I can get that without getting any closer, and even if I did, no need for you to come along. While I usually would be the first one to get dug into a good fight, this whole thing is too hot... figuratively and literally... for me to get in there and get messy personally."

He glanced back at the human behind him. "But if things go into sour waters, I may have to move in. If I can take a clean shot, I'll be happy to do so, but my main goal is the scans I need." He glanced at his omni-tool. "And from what I've already gotten, that suit of Archangel's is... interesting."

Avrensis folded his meaty arms, bald head gleaming in the dim lights of Niftu's hab blocks along the edge. "What's interesting about it? And data is what you're here for? You, personally? You could have dispatched one of your men to do that much."

The salarian puffed on his cigar. "Yes. The suit... was commissioned by Aria, if my information is correct. That implies that Archangel really was working for her. As for why I'm here... the rest of my men are busy with another task – and I wanted to see a master at work. This Archangel is wasted on a piss-hole like this. Think of the assassinations and kills we could achieve if he was working for us."

Avrensis gave a sour shake of the head. "Not very likely to happen. All my information suggests his vendetta against your group is deeply seated. His... violence when killing Broker agents up until now implies the fight with the gangs is just a sideshow. I already presented my theory as to his actions... attempting to draw someone with more information on the Broker to the station."

Tazzik nodded. "And the Broker and Tetrimus both think you are right. Which is no doubt why I am here, and not someone who could be captured and tortured or bonded and mind-linked." He tapped his temple with a long finger. "Cortex bombs and remote EMP wipes leave nothing to find."

The human hacker and magnate gave him an uneasy look. "This is one of many reasons why I prefer to merely be an associate of the Network and not a member. I'd rather not be 'expendable assets' in any situation."

The big salarian inclined his head a bit. "Ha. To the Broker, we're all expendable in one way or the other, Avrensis. Then again, the Broker is not P. and does not throw away his tools for mere failure – I am proof of that."

His voice turned musing. "But the information you provided is valuable enough that I strongly doubt he would be pleased if you were to come to harm. If the Butcher shows up, it will be to rescue the Archangel, not hunt about in the rim for us."

Avrensis shrugged. "I still dislike being this close to this mess. And the Butcher is not one I would suggest underestimating."

Tazzik laughed as he lifted the magnoculars again. "I'm not. But unless the Butcher can magically appear to save the day, she'll be too late to help poor Archangel in a few minutes. I brought some other assets to the party, and if I'm not there in person, well... I'll be there in spirit."

O-TWCD-O

Shepard was tensely waiting at the top of the shaft, the light of the drilling beam dimmer now. "How much longer, Vigil?"

The sphere flared in irritation. "At least twenty minutes. The composition of the asteroid we are digging through has shifted from carbonaceous to a mix of stony iron and nickel, and that does not melt very rapidly, especially in a controlled burn."

His voice turned scornful. "It doesn't help that this drill is shoddy and poorly maintained. The heads are warping faster than expected. We'll need to replace this laser head in four minutes, and we only have three more left. Idiot primitive technology. I remain astonished you people managed to ever master fire, much less space travel..."

Shepard nodded, ignoring the rest of the sphere's muttering, turning back to the rest of the team. "Fair enough. It's almost go time, people. Everybody ready?"

The two DACT nodded as one, checking their weapons, and Grunt merely gave a toothy grin. Jack flipped her off, and Zaeed gave a wry, bitter smile and patted Jessie. "Been ready for a while, Butcher. Reminds me of a job I did back when I was younger. Had to go in and isolate a guddamned pack of turian separatists with an old-fashioned dirty fission bomb on Helthia IV."

The old merc leaned back. "They were dug in like Horizon blood fleas, hardened bunker, autoguns, nano detection net, VI-augmented mechs, tiered kinetics, whole nine yards. Drilled my way into a sewage line and crawled through a hunnerd an' ninety feet of turian shit to get inside."

Jack laughed. "Pretty dirty job."

Zaeed sneered. "Got it done, though. Stupid bastards were expecting their fancy arse security grid to pick up any intruders. Knifed one in the throat on watch, then just went around and gathered up all their weapons and locked them in the armory. Shut down the security, wiped the bots and opened the front door to let the spike police in."

He chuckled. "Told them how I did it and they all looked at me like I was nuts."

Shepard rolled her eyes and glanced at her omni-tool. "Vigil, are they moving again?"

The sphere bobbed up next to her shoulder. "Yes. I've seeded five subunits into the level of the fighting. Two are currently carefully making the data connections the two canned organics came up with for the disruption trick we spoke about. Two more are working on bypassing security on the mercenary data nets controlling their war robots. The final unit is blunting the cyber attacks of the mercenaries against the warehouse... their skills are pitiful but there are hundreds of them. And they are linking in more from other parts of the station and even off station."

The silvery surface rippled in agitation. "While I am of course far superior to anything they can come up with, there are only so many ansible connections I can make without experiencing Einsteinian time dilation lag and the break-even point is getting closer with each asset they add. I estimate I will not be able to block all throughput attacks in another eleven minutes."

She glanced at the tiny internal chronometer in her vision. "Cutting it very close then."

"Indeed, meatbag. I would suggest getting the next laser head ready, this one is about to expire." The sphere glowed faintly, then gave a very human sounding sigh. "Ah, we have more issues. The Broker appears to have sent in an attack force through the cargo access tunnel."

Shepard frowned. "What? What kind? How many?"

The sphere's voice turned smug. "All of that will be irrelevant in moments, I assure you. I'm not at capacity yet. Just get the laser head ready and as usual I'll do all the actual work around here."

O-TWCD-O

Garrus exhaled as the vorcha packs scrambled through the corridors, occasionally firing off bursts of poorly aimed shots at his position. He was tucked into an up-armored junction box turned into a sniping nest, firing as rapidly as he could. He fired twice, the rifle jerking in his hands as one shot blasted through three vorcha and the other shot smashed one's skull to a reddish ruin before parting the right leg of the creature behind it.

He smiled as his omni-tool beeped, even as he hustled backwards again, firing rapidly at the mass without really aiming. He grinned as his suppressive fire ended up killing two more, even as he reached the edge of the bridge over to the warehouse.

Angel's voice was grim and triumphant. "Main body is halfway through the tunnels. Tarek and his flunkies are out of the APC but haven't entered yet. Gutless, cack-handed cowards."

Garrus glanced at the charging ranks of the vorcha. "Can't wait for that. Blow it all up."

There was a faint humming sound, and then all of the vibraflak mines, trapped walls, explosive power conduits, and other traps they'd seeded the approach with detonated in one long ugly string of explosions.

The front ranks of the vorcha were instantly shredded by thousands of razor-sharp shards of shattered metal hurled by mass-effect scatter bombs, while vibraflak mines blew up behind them, cratering the passageway and scattering long shards of metal and shrapnel in wide killing circles. The narrow walkways leading past the out of business omni-foundry plant were engulfed in blazing hot omnigel that altered configuration a second later to turn to explosive, which then went off in long booming streaks of white fire.

Mines and claymores erupted down the length of the passage, smashing into the legs and torsos of hundreds of Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse troopers. More went off on the ceiling, spraying tangle-wire, mono-molecular wire, corrosive foam, or simple ball bearings in swathes of carnage and gore. Purple, red and blue blood splashed and slapped against walls, screams of mercy and agony rang out, and the explosions continued.

An entire pack of Eclipse heavy infantry, older asari in expensive armor, was hit with shrapnel. The blasts were bad enough, but three of them had warp swords active, and two of those swords shattered from the explosion.

An engulfing torrent of raging, burning hot eezo and wild warpfire seared and tore through the ranks in both directions. Those hit by it in the first fifty feet didn't even have time to scream or realize they were dead, those further back were unlucky enough to survive with third and fourth degree burns, melted armor and slagged weapons.

Over a thousand lives, well over a third of the entire strike force, simply ceased to exist in nineteen seconds of overwhelming fire and explosions. The blasts were so severe holes were melted through the superstructure, blasts of raw energy shattering rock and blasting free into the void beyond. Dozens of hapless vorcha, krogan, batarians, turians, and asari were sucked into the void before cheap kinetic barriers snapped into place, and alarms rang out throughout the entire district.

"Alert. Primary hull breach detected. Upper Niftu, level one. All inhabitants must don space-safe survival gear or make your way to Middle Niftu. Blast doors will seal the Upper Niftu area in five minutes. Alert. Primary hull breach detected..."

Garrus's eyes were wide behind the helmet of his SKYTALON armor. "...Well, fuck." He heard loud cheering over his commlink, and after a few seconds tapped the comm. "Alright people. Calm it down. They're going to be coming at us hot and fast, and we're out of traps and places to hold them off from. This is now it. Everyone get to your positions, get the drones hot and the turrets lit."

He turned, moving rapidly across the wide bridge, glancing to his left at the wide cargo access corridor. "Sensat, any activity at the cargo port?"

"Yes. Alarms coming in now. The outer hatch has been hacked open. Sensors show... fuck. FUCK!"

Garrus made the U-turn around the bend in the defenses leading into the first floor and snapped his mandibles. "What is it?"

"Nine heavy gunships, Garrus. Telvache class, heavier than the turian one out front. Each one can carry ten troops and has an ECM suite. Where in fuck were these things?"

Butler spoke. "Pulled an image off the spycam... check the logo on the fuckers."

Garrus pulled the video up on his omni-tool, and glared hatefully at the stylized red triangle insignia of the Shadow Broker. "Lovely. Will the ECM bomb take those things out?"

Weaver's voice was grim. "Not very likely. That's serious military hardware, the Asari Republic only started fielding those bitches last year. Hydra won't do jack shit to Silaris armor plating, nor will a lance cannon."

Angel was walking down the stairs, holding his double-action Typhoon. "What about the Kraken missiles?"

"It's a gamble, boss. It can spoof the ECM, sure, but … Silaris is tough shit. Bad thing is those things have saboting rocket pods and railguns – our defenses and walls can't bounce any of that shit."

Angel sighed, and glanced around. "No matter. Blow the EMP bomb when they cross over it...then take the air cars and smash them into the gunships. Maybe we can cripple one or two that way."

Butler came out of the room with their generator, pulling the strap of a lance cannon over his chest. Sidonis and Mierin were hand-loading custom ammo blocks with strips of explosive into their sniper rifles, both festooned with flat-pak grenades and hanging shotguns. Krul was holding an Claymore shotgun like a pistol in one meaty hand and her power maul in the other, her ancient clan armor gleaming in pale reds with black bold korogish symbols.

Melenis was laying out medigel packets in neat rows, a heavy battle rifle across her back. Garrus looked around, and nodded. He spoke, his voice hard and crisp.

"They're coming. We all know the plan, gunships or no gunships. We hit them with everything we've got, kill as many of the fuckers as we can, put the mechs in defensive locations. We head into the tunnels, blow the entrance down after us, and hustle to the shuttle. Everyone gets on and we try our damnedest to make it to the cross access-way and to the Mids, and from there the Docks."

He lifted his sniper rifle. "We may not make it. Even if we do, without Erash, we may not be able to access more than the outer section of the Wind Dagger's corvette, or get it started. We may get pinned down and die at any fucking point."

He glanced down, and flicked a mandible. "This may seem like a lost cause. My father said 'Lost causes only happen when people lose their belief in the fact that it matters.' What we've done... what we've shown the people of Omega, the gangs, Aria, the slavers, the criminals, and each other – that can never be undone, or lost."

He looked at Butler's tired, worried features, the barely noticeable quiver of nervous fear in the clasped hands of Mierin and Sidonis, the heavy gaze of Krul. "Some of us are fighting for all that we have left. Some of us lost everything and are fighting because we don't know what else to do. But we know we're fighting for a reason. For the people who would have died otherwise. So children don't have to watch their parents get dragged off to the meat shops or the slave rail. So there aren't chipped up pleasure slaves and dusting bars on every fucking corner."

He lifted his head, squared the shoulder of the suit. "We are all going to die someday, no matter what we do or don't do. But if we go out tonight... all of us are going to live or die doing what we know is the right thing. I'm Garrus Vakarian, son of Regilus and Mitisia. I survived the Separatist Attack on Menae. I lived through a holed warship with no survival suit. I've made it through armies of geth, plant zombies, and rachni. I've fought against Saren and Benezia, faced down overwhelming odds... and lived even after Tetrimus himself tried to kill me."

He put all the steel in his voice he could. "They don't have enough fucking gun to kill me, now or ever."

Angel nodded. "To keep the spark going a little longer." He racked the slide on his heavy machine gun, and grinned.

Garrus glanced at the monitor on the wall, as the gunships floated forward, death in their every line and movement. "Blow the EMP, Sensat."

There was a muted, heavy thump, and a flash of blue... and the gunships wavered in the air then kept coming.

Sensat's voice sounded tired. "...No effect – " He broke off, and cursed, along with Weaver. " – S-something just... usurped our bandwidth –"

A sneering, cool voice that sounded tantalizingly familiar to Garrus rang out. "Worry not. Focus on defending yourselves. I will deal with the gunships."

Angel looked confused. "Who are you? What are you?"

The voice somehow became even more smug. "Better."

Mierin pointed to the monitor. "Holy seas and shores, look!"

The Telvache class gunships were highly automated, allowing the single pilot to operate navigation, flight, weapons and scanning systems with simple, verbal commands processed by an onboard VI. This VI was hardened against conventional cyberwarfare attacks, but every system had a weakness.

The weakness in this particular case was laser-link maintenance sensors, designed to detect overheat conditions and vent the gunship's heatsinks. The powerful laser link comm system of the warehouse was overridden and flickered across the laser link port of all the gunships in sequence, triggering a maintenance event.

This put the control systems of the gunship into a secondary access mode, and before the onboard VI's could compensate, the cyberwarfare attack shunted the waste heat of the now venting heatsinks into the fuel cell area, reversing the normal flow.

Seven of the gunships simply detonated, flying apart in terrifyingly powerful explosions, plasma fuel and ammunition blowing holes in the flimsy support walls of the cargo pathway. The other two entered emergency failure shutdowns as the engines on those two were already having problems and the pilots had taken manual control, but with each one being blasted by shrapnel and impacts from their destroyed brethren, they did not fare well either.

They crashed hard into the ground, one snapping in half and scattering broken, burning black armored forms to the ground, the other one skidding to a smoking halt near the edge of the pathway, burning brightly.

As quick as the attack happened it was over, and the sneering voice rang out again. "Help is coming. Two armored air transports will arrive through the cargo transport path in fifteen minutes, and another path is being opened above. You must hold on for that long."

Sensat spoke up after a moment. "No signal detected on the laser link, but... incoming movement through the main passage, bossman. I think we're on."

Angel shook off his surprise. "...We have help coming in. So let's make this fight count. Krul and Butler, with me on the first floor. Melenis, stairway overwatch. Garrus, Mierin, Sidonis, sniper overwatch. Sensat, get those air cars ready, you have oversight on drones and mechs. Weaver, turrets. This is it."

Garrus nodded, rushing up the stairs, trailed by Sidonis and Mierin. He hustled into the small lounge like room overlooking the bridge and the front entrance. A moment later the young turian and asari moved into place, flanking him and lifting their sniper rifles.

He adjusted the gauge choke on his Widow, keeping his voice calm. "Take it just like practice. Don't hurry your shots. Keep your rifles centered. Deflection, angle, and elevation, just like I showed you. Aim for officers, engineers, heavies and biotics in that order of importance, and if you can't kill them go for a shot to incapacitate."

Mierin's spare features were tensed behind the clear faceplate of her helmet as she nodded, while Sidonis merely flexed his shoulders and brought his rifle into firing position. The strong voice of Angel came across the commlink.

"The Glaive mine is armed. Let it detonate before opening fire."

A roar echoed down the passageway, and the heavy, red-painted forms of the Blood Pack stormed forward, what few vorcha were left running alongside krogan armed with heavy shotguns and the ugly, block forms of Graal spike launchers. They burst onto the bridge howling out their war cries.

The two foot wide circle of metal popped up high into the air from the bridge's surface, and then a split second later the eezo charge inside detonated, creating an unstable mass effect field spiraling outwards. Mono-molecular wire, coated in pyroacidic gel, was flung outwards in wild, tumbling arcs at almost twice the speed of sound.

Even Garrus was appalled at the carnage it wrought on the charging Blood Pack. Dozens upon dozens of them simply came apart in sections of armor, bleeding flesh and cleanly sliced bone, the cuts so neat and even that it was as if the charging force had been converted into processed steak cuts. Those on the edge of the cloud were slashed and went down bleeding, and then the pyroacidic gel began reacting with the air.

There was a soft, sighing swoosh sound as the entire front of the courtyard and bridge burst into bright searing blue fire, and the screams of those wounded but not dead rang out. As more krogan charged forward, the entire warehouse seemed to shudder as all the turrets came online and fire mixed with missiles vomited forth from the roof.

Long, curving lines of accelerator fire was mixed with the sun-bright blast of lance cannons, smashing into the charging ranks with fell impacts. Krogan staggered and screamed as dozens of heavy explosive rounds crashed into them, or lance cannon beams burned holes through them and sheared off limbs. Shrapnel rounds from the missiles sent ugly splinters of white-hot metal scything back and forth, cutting down krogan, sending them to the ground with scores of lethal, garish wounds seared so hot they couldn't regenerate.

But krogan were not as other aliens. The more they were killed and maimed, the angrier they got, the more determined to kill. Rather than break, they kept charging, right into the tangle-wire mess at the bridge and over the corpses of those who preceded them, even as they were shot to pieces. The second turret line opened up, along with the defenders on the first floor, and Garrus lifted his sniper rifle to fire as well.

Booming shotgun blasts and torrents of flame washed over the bridge along with concentrated fire from the defenders, stopping the already weakened charge dead in its tracks. Garrus could only watch a dozen scenes of carnage and horror through his scope.

A krogan, female, running in head down, transfixed by a stream of tracers that blasted chunks of armor and flesh from her hips and right arm, only to spin and slip in her own blood. The searing beam of a lance cannon smashing into a krogan with enough force to split him in half like a bag of rotten meat, burning and unrecognizable organs and fragmented grayish bones bursting from him as he flew back. A pair of vorcha caught in the stream of burning napalm from the ground turrets, blackening and crisping as they wailed and collapsed onto the scorched, blood-soaked metal of the bridge.

For a full fifty seconds it continued, the sound and smoke of the turrets deafening and blinding, the stink of burning, charred flesh choking the senses and stinging the eyes, and above the juddering bangs of the defenses, the screams of the dying, the wounded, and those blasted off the bridge entirely to fall nine hundred feet to the depths below.

"Cease fire!" Angel's voice was tense, and as the smoke began to clear, Garrus panned his sniper rifle around. Nothing was moving on the bridge except a handful of krogan, clearly in the process of dying.

"Spirits..."

O-TWCD-O

In the narrow confines of the main approach, set off to one side, Tarek shuddered as he looked at the feed from the drone. "Dark Gods above and below..."

Durm, on the other hand, merely shrugged. "Well, a direct charge won't fucking work. That … big mine thing must have taken out a hundred of my men by itself, and that's a lot of firepower on the roof and the main entry path. Your battle-suits and mechs will have to go in and soften that shit up."

Tarek scowled. "There's enough heavy weapons up there that sending them in now would be premature. Mechs, though... may be a workable idea."

Relli's Kiss was on the commlink with one of her scouts, and clicked off. "The Broker's support isn't going to make it – supposedly, the gunships were hacked and blown up."

Tarek gave her a look of confusion. "How in fuck's name do you hack a goddamned gunship? Just what the fuck are we fighting here?"

The asari shrugged. "The Broker's people didn't say... and oddly enough, didn't sound that pissed about it." She glanced at Durm. "Something's fishy about it, I think. The Broker is just letting us waste ourselves, no one has seen or heard from his people."

Durm shrugged. "Deal with the Broker later. Right now, we need to overwhelm the defenders, before they cook up something else weird or manage to blow up the entire damned station."

She tapped her omni, bringing up a simplified map of the area ahead. "Indeed. Durm, you have enough men for another wasteful charge?"

The krogan warlord shook his head. "Not really. More vorcha, coming from up-station, but they'll take a good hour to get here." His bulbous eyes narrowed. "I didn't bring my heavy hitters with me, obviously. Figured this would be a good a way as any to weed out the ones unhappy about me taking my father's place without a Crush to determine if they'd follow or not. The ones I've got left I'd prefer not to waste... without a plan, of course. I can always get more disgruntled krogan and vorcha eventually."

The Eclipse leader nodded. "Fair enough. I'll pair some of my stronger sisters with your mechs, Tarek, providing barrier shields. Once you get their defenses tied up, I'll have a pack of my girls with glidewings flit in and rush the entrance with flash-paks - if your engineers have some extra - and warp swords. If they can clear the ground level turrets out..."

Tarek nodded. "We should have enough flash-paks for that. They won't bring the walls down, but they're strong enough to blow the turrets up. I'm having my engineers build a rolling barricade carried by two of the heavy mechs we brought. I'll put rocket engineers behind it and push out a drone wave, followed by ground mechs, then heavies and your girls, then the two assault mechs." He gazed at the map. "Once you get going, my battle-suits will move in – I've still got one super-heavy ready to go – and blow the rest of the turrets."

She nodded, tapping her commlink. "Get Vesta Squad ready to fly."

O-TWCD-O

Garrus cursed when the heavy curved form of the barricade shield came into view. "Angel, they've got heavy mechs carrying some kind of... shield, fortified with kinetics. Mechs firing from behind cover."

"I see it. Focus fire." The turrets came up, firing, and Garrus panned his sniper rifle, looking for a shot. The barrier held under repeated strikes, as a wave of glowing omni-drones zoomed above them.

Sensat's voice was tense. "Drone swarm up. Engaging." The hexagonal and gleaming omni-drones of the batarian came into view, shots flying back and forth as drones exploded into broken shards of flash-fabbed plastic.

More mechs edged out onto the bridge, a few falling to heavy fire but most covered behind the armored plate of the barrier, which was beginning to fail under the constant turret fire. Six rockets flashed out from behind the barrier, four of them impacting the armored line of turrets on the roof.

"Turret two out of commission. Turret three... not turning. Signal loss, turret six, compensating. Dammit, hackers in our lines again."

Sidonis fired at something through the window, and began reloading. "Do we get out on the roof to repair?"

Garrus shook his head, sighting in on the barely visible edge of a mech's leg behind the barricade, firing and smiling as the machine crashed to the ground, halting the enemy advance for a few seconds. "No, too dangerous. Keep shooting."

Sidonis opened his mouth to speak, but then blue-lit shapes flew in graceful curved arcs over the barricades, landing near the entrance to the warehouse, then kanquessing within to bypass the turrets as much as possible. Eclipse sisters with wild yellow face paint charged forward, hurling grenades and flash-paks along with warpfire.

Five of them were blasted or incinerated almost on the spot, flying back with craterous wounds splashing blood in all directions, or falling to the ground in burning piles. But two survived long enough to hurl grenades into the turret groups, and one used a second biotic charge to storm into the lower level proper.

Butler fired his lance cannon at the asari with a yell, but the shot was only a glancing hit, melting armor along her thigh as she rolled forward, hand outstretched. Warpfire burst into a lance, flashing over him in a torrent before Angel's Typhoon spun up and fired, sawing the ganger in half from the stream of high impact rounds and sending her slumping to the floor in death.

Melenis vaulted over a barricade to pull the wounded human to the ground, grimacing. "You okay?"

The human matched her expression and nodded. "Yeah... arm's burned, but I'm not dead."

She tore the backing from a medigel packet and quickly stripped away the damaged, melted arm guard, exposing burned, cracked skin. She laid the packet in place, securing it with a couple of quick swipes of tape, and then pulled out a small black leather case. "Pain blockers. These won't last long..."

Butler nodded, while Angel kept his weapon leveled as another batch of asari soared in, slamming into the defenses. He fired at them even as they took out another ground turret. "Melenis, need some fire over here."

Melenis finished her work and picked up her rifle, tucking into cover and spraying rounds in the direction of the charging asari. "They're just throwing themselves at us like... mentha fish at a nexa!"

Angel nodded. "Turrets will eventually overheat. Traps are all used up. Ammo gets low. A wound here, a wound there, and pretty soon we're a wreck. These little probing attacks will eventually finish us. That's why they brought extra people, they planned to wear us down with numbers from the beginning. We may have to abandon the first floor and dig in at the staircase."

He glanced at his chrono. If the strange hacker who'd taken out those gunships was accurate, they only had to hold on for a bit longer. But if he pulled up to the stairs now, the Suns engineers could set up mortars or worse inside the warehouse.

The voice of Weaver came over the comm. "Five roof turrets and four ground turrets out of commission. Our net is at forty percent, two second lag time on our turret targeting. Barrier is down over those mechs, but we have super-heavies coming up behind them and Blue Suns troopers using the downed mechs and barrier as makeshift cover, plus kinetic snap screens."

"Cover and advance. Clever, but not clever enough." Angel's voice was cool. "Sensat, drop the air cars on them."

"Engaging units. Shit, more drones incoming, rocket drones this time. Everyone brace!"

O-TWCD-O

"...And we're through."

Miranda let out a slow trickle of tense breath as the explosive charge detonated, the walls falling away to reveal the matte gray cargo access corridor. The approach to their entrance point had not gone as smoothly as hoped, as the explosions above in Niftu had sent cascades of rubble and debris into the superstructure, blocking their first planned route.

Luckily they'd been able to route around it, and Miranda tapped her omni. "In position, waiting for your signal."

Shepard's voice sounded tense. "Acknowledged. Almost done drilling, but the fuckers are hitting the warehouse really hard. If you launch now ETA to warehouse pickup?"

Miranda consulted her omni-tool. "...eight minutes."

Shepard's voice hardened. "Launch now, then. Be aware Vigil downed a pack of Broker gunships in that tunnel, and two of them are possibly not completely disabled, only unable to move."

Miranda bit her lip. "Understood, incoming now, Butcher." She killed the comms and nodded at Jacob. "Take us in, but not max speed. We don't want any sensors picking us up until it's too late."

He nodded, tapping the controls, easing the big armored truck through the gaping hole in the superstructure. "Other end of the tunnel is hot with contacts, just so you know. If they come this direction we'll be trapped in there."

Miranda nodded sourly. "I had considered that possibility when we made this plan. But there aren't any other options except that madness Shepard is attempting."

Levels above, Shepard was checking her weapons. "Everyone gather around me. When this thing goes, Vigil will crash the transport to give us some temporary cover, but chances are shit is going to be messy. We'll have only a few seconds of surprise, so hit them with everything you've got and then fall back to the warehouse. Remember, our job is to push back and keep attention on us so Miranda's trucks can land and we can get in position."

Jack's shoulders shifted under the armor she wore. "This is gonna be a heavy ass pull, grandma."

Shepard smiled, and flicked the safety off of her ODIN. "We'll be fine."

Vigil's voice was calm. "One minute, get ready."

O-TWCD-O

"Fuuucck!"

Garrus snarled as more asari crashed through the windows, firing his Talon pistol at the closet Eclipse member and blowing her head off with the shot. Mierin was tangled up with another, having dropped her rifle to bring up her warp sword, but her skills were no match for the tattooed asari fighting her, and she screamed as her blade and right hand were slashed off and the blade came around to kill her.

Before Garrus could move Sidonis was there in a flying spring and leap, tackling the asari with a primal roar. He ignored the blade that had sheared into his shoulder and raked hard with his talons, drawing a choked scream and gurgle from the ganger as he literally tore her to pieces in rage.

Garrus blocked a blast of warpfire from the last Eclipse ganger with his omni-shield, and came in fast. A hard knee to her torso doubled her over, and his rising kick crashed into her temple with enough force to knock her to the ground. He stomped down with the whole weight of the suit a moment later, splattering her head.

Angel's voice was hoarse over the sound of his Typhoon firing. "PAYBACK, MOTHERFUCKERS! REPENSUM! REPENSUM!" Butler gave the yowling battle-cry of the Arcturus Marines, the hollowed boom of his lance cannon punctuated by the screams of asari and the wet slap of dying flesh.

The turrets were almost all down, and as he glanced out the window he saw a heavy salarian Burvo mech stomping forward, rocket pods firing at the roof. The last few turrets had blown away one of its arms, but the gaggle of asari around it were blocking much of the counter fire with barriers and wall invocations.

The bridge was a ghastly abattoir, blackened with burned, caked gore and littered with broken mech parts. Two battle suits were burning wrecks, weak cover for the group of heavy Blue Suns machine gunners raking the front of the warehouse with fire. Most of the ground turrets were wrecked by charges of Eclipse sisters.

He had to stop that mech before it cleared a path into the warehouse. He glanced over his shoulder. "Sidonis. She okay?"

The younger turian was holding his mate carefully, his plates distended in rage and fear as she used most of her medigel to try and control the bleeding. "She's hurt bad, Garrus."

He steeled his voice. "Then you have to protect her. This position is overrun." He tapped his comms. "Angel, Sidonis and Mierin are both hurt badly, no longer effective. Fall back to the upper."

The marine snarled. "Can't hold them down here..."

Garrus exhaled. "I'll handle that. Move." With a grimace he threw himself through the window, triggering his flight system even as he pushed off. It only took a split second to land literally on top of the tall combat mech on the bridge.

Shouts and heavy fire rang out from all directions, but Garrus was focused. His omni-claws slashed down the back of the mech, even as he slammed two EMP paks into its back before dropping to the ground. He landed on one of the flanking asari, his augmented weight in the suit snapping her spine before pulping her corpse below the heavy feet of the SKYTALON.

Taken by complete surprise, the Sisters on the ground had no time to react. Even as the EMP charges went off and the heavy mech began to topple backwards, Garrus was in motion, one slash hamstringing the asari to his left, his other clawing the face off of the two to his right. He spun, ducking a wild slash from a warp sword, bringing up the Talon pistol in a smooth arc to fire right into the asari's face.

Her entire upper body collapsed from the blast of the point-blank shot, scattering viscera over the faces of her sisters, shocking them for a split second even as they lifted rifles to kill him. He moved, even as the fire from the far side of the bridge intensified, and swept his leg in an arc as he rolled.

The weight of the suit was a weapon in and of itself, as four hundred pounds of metal snapped the legs of two of the remaining asari, and both smashed into a tangle into the third, sending all three off the bridge to their deaths. Garrus rolled to his feet, ducking behind the mech as it crashed to the ground fully, smiling to himself.

"Goddess' eyes! Garrus get back in cover!" Melenis' voice was tense and shaky, and he shook his head.

"Get Mier patched up. I'll handle this." He smiled as more heavy Blue Suns infantry charged, firing machine guns and throwing grenades. He leapt up, firing with the Talon as he dodged their panicky fire.

Rockets slammed into him from the far end of the bridge, and sniper fire rang out against the suit as he landed behind the charging gangers. He flung a grenade at them, laughing to himself as it attached to one of the merc's back and he screamed in terror. The blast scattered the group, killing five of them, even as two asari came flying out of the front of the warehouse, shot to pieces and riddled with warpfire burns.

Angel's voice was almost weak sounding. "Cleared... lower level. Fall back to the upper. Garrus..."

Garrus smiled, as more goons leveled weapons and a Vencar battle-suit stomped forward. The Vencar was the latest model salarian battle-suit, not as tough as a Shieldbreaker, but still banded with Silaris armor and backing a two-inch mass accelerated magna-cannon that could wreck a tank. He knew his SKYTALON was no match... and yet, if he didn't take it out, it could shoot right through the walls and kill everyone.

He flicked his armor to active mode, light blazing from his form to attract more attention, and exhaled. "Go with the spirits, guys." He turned to face death, as he took in the form of the much heavier and better armored battle-suit in gray and red.

The voice of Tarek boomed across the bridge from some comm system drone. "Come out to play with us for a while, Archangel? Get tired of hiding? Durek, kill him. Bring me the head, then blow the warehouse."

Garrus smirked as the battle-suit pilot lifted its weapons and fired. He triggered the maneuvering jets on the legs of his own suit, flopping into a sloppy roll that managed to evade the heavy blast of the reinforced magna-cannon, and charged forward, slamming omni-claws into the suit's leg.

The battle-suit staggered, but brought the stock of the heavy weapon in its hands down on the back of Garrus's lighter SKYTALON. The blow felt like a building falling on him, and his vision swam briefly. He slashed hard again, carving through inches of armor and striking power conduits in the leg, but then the Vencar pilot kicked out with the other leg.

Garrus suppressed a scream as his suit blared alarms, his leg half crushed as the joints collapsed under the blow. He staggered back, trying to get the jump pack to trigger, and the battle-suit leveled the magna-cannon and shot him at point blank range.

Melenis screamed as the SKYTALON flew back to crash heavily on the bridge, a blasted smoking hole seeping hydraulics and blue blood blown into the collar of the war-machine. The pilot of the Vencar moved his machine up, but paused when a hot, sloppy flare blasted its upper torso.

Melenis flash-stepped twice, teeth fixed in a feral snarl, eyes blazing as she fired grenades from the underbarrel launcher of her rifle. Both hit and exploded impotently off of the gleaming armor of the mech, which triggered a row of small mass accelerators in the right arm in a spread of burst fire.

Shots cracked Melenis's shaky barrier and punched through her legs, shoulder and arm, sending her rifle flying and her crashing to the ground with a scream of agony, but she somehow wrenched herself to one knee and flung more warpfire, ragged and desperate. "I will not let you kill him!"

The pilot barked laughter, firing a shell from the magna cannon at her. Garrus braced himself against agony and lunged, managing to block the shell with his omni-shield. The blast wrecked the shield and spun him around to crash down heavily again, blood flying out of his mouth. His shoulder was bleeding freely and one of his mandibles felt like it was gone, and he could smell the burned flesh and stinking viscera splashed around him.

He managed to turn his head to look at Melenis, who'd been blasted from the explosion force of the shell, and she stretched her hand out towards him, eyes filled with tears. "I..."

The pilot stomped forward, his chuckling audible through the speaker, while more gangers rushed in behind him, weapons leveled. Someone in the warehouse was firing, but the shots pinged off the massive battle-suit ineffectively. Sounds blended together in a hellish cacophony in Garrus' hearing as his vision swam and blurred.

The pilot stopped, and pointed the barrel of his massive weapon right at the head of Archangel.

Garrus was dizzied and couldn't see out of his right, cybernetic eye. The shot he'd taken must have damaged it. He figured it would always end like this, but he found he couldn't think of a good snappy line to end his life with. He tried his best anyway. "Don't suppose the cavalry is going to show up now, are they?"

The pilot laughed. "Ha. Good one. But no. Time to go to heaven, asshole."

Even as he spoke, however, the ceiling of the staging area of the warehouse suddenly glowed red hot in a vast circle. A split second later it exploded, sending rubble and shrapnel in all directions. A furious blue glow illuminated the darkness of the expanse, as an armored air truck came screaming out of the hole in the ceiling.

The truck crashed heavily into the Blue Suns soldiers advancing along the bridge, skidding a good dozen feet before coming to a stop, the mangled and smeared remains of the soldiers it had run over and crushed spread out behind it in a gory trail. The Vencar paused, angling upwards to see what was happening.

Garrus also managed to turn a bit to face upwards. The light was blinding, a blue glow that seemed to be the perfect azure of the sea, or maybe the sky. It wavered in his half blinded vision, surrounding a shining white star that seemed to flare.

The blue glow grew brighter, and the star resolved into a single white figure. The white being fell from the heavens, holding a blazing blue warp sword. The pilot of the battle-suit that downed Archangel stared transfixed for the half a second it took for the Butcher's weapon to bisect his suit's head, ending his life.

The suit shuddered and fell with the impact of the Butcher's landing on its shoulders, even as a terrible sound tore across the comm systems of all combatants – the high, keening cry of the human kamikaze. Turians shuddered and salarians recoiled as the liquid, dread syllables washed over them.

Heavy suits of DACT battle armor crashed down behind the Butcher, one leveling a BRKR rail-gun, the other a multiphase plasma mortar. Both fired at the enemy lines the second they landed, the rail-gun round tearing a staggeringly wide path of shattered bodies through the ranks before detonating violently, and the plasma mortar handily incinerating the rocket squad that was backpedaling for cover.

The krogan and two humans that floated down a moment later immediately rushed into the cover of the air transport, and the smallest of them, a thin human girl, gave a howl of her own as she scattered lines of blue radiance from her out-flung hand, latching on to several dropped rocket launchers and dragging them to her side. She picked up one and fired it with a feral grin, the Hydra missile lancing out to blast a battle-suit in the head, the massive construction staggering back before toppling off the bridge entirely.

The other human held what looked like an old black-and-red Avenger rifle, until he tapped an omni-panel on its side. "Level three."

The gun slid open, the barrel circling wider, heavy red glows expanding as rails extended out and down, and a heavy under-barrel smoothly slid up and out. A moment later it vomited forth flaring, hot red streaks of spray-shell rounds in a terrifying pattern that tore through the meager cover of wreckage on the bridge to saw through the Suns hiding behind it, sending bits and chunks of batarian and turian flying back.

A second battle-suit charged forward, angling to shoot the Butcher, when Grunt roared in anger. The big krogan rushed forward, backhanding a Blue Suns engineer out of his way with enough force to snap his spine in a single blow, and rolled to a crouch three feet from the battle-suit as it struggled to bring its weapon inline with him. The heavy, green-lit weapon in his hand gave a coughing howl like a damned soul, and a ugly greenish cone of twisted, corrupted light that left an afterimage hanging in the air.

The blast hit the suit dead on, and a second later after the flash of green light faded, everything above the suit's waist simply ceased to exist. The stump of the wearer's torso spewed blue fluids for a few seconds before the krogan gave a hard laugh and shoved it back.

The Butcher was already moving. One hand held her sword, the other pulled out a Harrier and began firing as she ran. She leapt completely over a wrecked mech as if it was a single step, flashing into the kanquess and coming out in the middle of the first line of the Suns heavies in proper cover beyond the end of the bridge.

The nearest mercenaries had absolutely no time to react, the warp blade slashing through them so fast the eye could not follow, the others scrambling to find cover. Those who weren't quick enough were shot down as her Harrier barked sharply in short, perfectly targeted bursts, sending them to the ground with mortal wounds.

Even as she did so, Jack turned to Zaeed. "Keep 'em off me, these two are busted up bad. Gonna use lift to get 'em inside."

Zaeed nodded, shifting Jessie to fire another long burst at the ranks of mercenaries near the bridge, even as Shepard shot the last Suns heavy and Grunt killed a pair of krogan with a single blast. "Trucks here in a minute!"

The gangers were finally shaking off their shock, and dozens rushed forward, too keyed up to properly register what they were seeing. It was impossible. The Butcher's laugh was terrible, as she kanquessed away, leaving behind a belt of frag grenades that tore into their ranks a split second after she was gone. Six batarians and an asari went down screaming in agony, as she came out of her charge behind the last battle-suit. Her warp sword stabbed through the back of the suit, making the entire thing arch back as if stricken, and then she lashed her weapon free.

She put the Harrier on its mag-mount on her back before dashing backward. "Vigil now!"

The sphere, still floating high above the field, began to pulse, as five smaller spheres orbited it. The AI had been carefully, slowly establishing a data connection to every single mech, data-ported armor, battle-suit, and weapon on the field. When Shepard shouted, Vigil triggered fifty-thousand runtimes of the concoction of overheat, jam and lock scripts worked up by Kiala and Tali in the trip to Omega.

Not every system went down. Some, especially the more technical-oriented Blue Suns, had auto-purge scripts on their armor. Many of the Blood Pack used weapons without a data connection, and some of the Eclipse girls had nothing but leathers and a warp sword and thus nothing to hack. But all of their combat mechs, from the smaller GINI and LOKI to the ten massive Xasxmir and MJOLNIR assault warframes, went crazy at the same time. Hundreds of the gangers weapons exploded on them, and panic set in as their armor began ejecting medigel uselessly onto the ground. Weapon heatsinks vented into their suits instead of out, sensors filled with garbage, and audio systems spoke a single line in the cool, murderous voice of the Butcher.

"I warned you. Time to die."

The mechs attacked the gangers ruthlessly, firing to create as much confusion as possible. The ganger lines, such as they were, collapsed into chaos, the mercs firing in panicked bursts and were being cut down by the score from their own mechs. Dozens began fleeing in any possible direction, screaming the Butcher had come, while others thought the other gangs were double-crosssing them and attacked their own. A few tried to purge their systems, and the Blue Suns engineers that were left reacted as best they could. Vigil immediately came under heavy cyber-attack by the Blue Suns hackers in the datasphere, and had his subdaemons focus on defense while he kept purging attempts at shutdown and reboots.

One of the Suns plasma mortar teams fired at the rampaging form of a Xasxmir mech, and the shot by luck or chance bypassed the armor and detonated the powercore. The explosion that followed not only took out the primary data connection leading back to the command APC but reduced the bandwidth of the hackers on the Blue Suns side by some thirty percent. No one realized to reroute it for a full minute, and the delay only added to the confusion.

Shepard hurled blasts of warpfire down the long corridor, incinerating the last few remaining mercs still trying to advance, before backing up and focusing. She used her pull to make a shoddy and rough barricade of rubble, bodies, and broken mech and battle suit parts at the foot of the bridge, and then scattered flash-pak mines and her omni-goop grenades behind it with proximity triggers.

She dashed backwards towards the warehouse, Zaeed and Grunt following. "Bridge is blocked, at least for the moment. Miranda, status."

"Touched down on the roof, Shepard. Get inside and let's get moving quickly, Vigil says he's being overpowered slowly but surely."

Shepard hustled into the warehouse entry, stepping over shattered corpses and burning wreckage. The entry tunnel was completely covered in splashed blood, bits of bodies, broken armor and scorch marks. Rounding the corner, the lower level was a mess – broken barricades and blood, and a knot of people standing around the form of what had to be Archangel.

A big human in heavy armor with a bald head and vaguely Hispanic features faced her. "...didn't really expect you to show up, Butcher. God knows we need the help. I'm Angel."

She nodded. "We have to move fast. I've got a pair of air trucks on the roof and mechs to help defend, but they need to get inside."

He glanced at a ragged looking lower caste batarian. "Sensat, blow the roof access hatch."

The batarian nodded tapping his omni. "Opened."

Shepard tapped her own commlink. "Miranda, there's a hatch. Half the mechs, have them drop down in the front and suppress incoming. Have Tali and Kiala fix up whatever they can with the turrets up top and drop their own."

Miranda's voice was crisp. "Understood. Sedanya and Solus are on their way down now, Jacob and I will stay in the trucks."

Shepard turned to face Angel. "We don't have much time. I have an associate hacking the Blue Suns mechs and most of their armor and weapons systems. But it won't take them long to purge and eventually they'll get a lockdown and reset code on their mechs. How many wounded do you have?"

Angel grimaced. "Butler has taken severe wounds. I think Krul is dying or dead. They rushed us... one got her with a warp sword, and another asari got past me and .. killed one of our hackers, Weaver. Sensat is okay. I'm banged up but mostly alright. Sidonis and Mierin are hurt bad, Erash is in the back with a life-threatening infection."

He gestured to the bulky form of Archangel and the bloodied, dazed looking asari next to him fiddling with his helmet. "Melenis?"

She spat blood. "Broken rib, shots in my legs and shoulders. Probably going into shock." She tugged at the armor and gave a weak sob. "I think he blacked out, we have to get him out of this armor..."

Mordin and Sedanya rushed down from above, followed by a file of black-armored mechs with heavy weapons. Shepard jerked her head. "Half the mechs upstairs, half in the tunnel. Grunt, the tunnel with them – NOTHING gets past."

He nodded. "Yes, battlemaster."

She glanced at Zaeed. "Zaeed... upstairs?"

"Fine by me. This is a guddamned duck hunt, haven't had this much fun since I shot up that cult on Viden Seven."

Angel blinked. "...Zaeed? Massani?"

Zaeed glanced over, then a faint smile crossed his cold features. "Well, if it isn't little Johnny Angel all grown up and badass. Gotta say, you don't know when to stop getting in over yer head do you, boy?" He walked up the stairs, laughing softly, leaving Angel with his mouth open.

Shepard glanced down at Archangel as Mordin bent down to help Melenis. "Please. Allow me. You are wounded."

Sedanya gently took Melenis to one side, speaking calmly and slowly. Mordin exhaled. "Armor has medical functions, but not engaged. Curious. Custom build? Odd. Settings for female turian." He sighed. "Injecting stimulants, clotting agent. Should stabilize. Need to finish removing helmet."

As Mordin slid something into the armor's medical port, the turian Angel called Sidonis gave a weak laugh. "Ahaha. You hear that old man? Even the suit thinks you're a bitch."

A modulated growling voice, weak but deep, answered from the speaker a few seconds later. "Go... prong yourself... soft claw."

Shepard smiled faintly. "Mordin? How badly is he hurt, and will he live? Can we move him?"

With a snap, Mordin undid the shoulder and chest segment, setting the broken armor section to one side. "Survival likely, other outcomes unknown.. Heart rate erratic. Still in shock. Most of blast glanced off, lucky. But now comes tricky part. Armor fragments. Damage to mandible, chest, dangerous if air sac punctured." He gave a sharp inhalation. "Will need to remove helmet to make sure."

Sedanya was applying some kind of wrapped bandage with a brace around it on the stump of the skinnier asari woman, who had slumped unconscious and was being held by Sidonis. The rest of the Archangel's team was standing in what looked like shock, and Angel took a deep breath. "...I'm sorry, this... it's a lot to take in. I thought we were dead. What is the plan?"

Shepard nodded. "It's okay. You fucked them up pretty bad. Plan is simple - we get you healed up enough to move and get the hell out. I think we have at least ten minutes to get you guys field dressed and medevac, assuming Shiny can hold his shit together that long."

"I heard that, meatbag."

Angel jerked his head at the sound of Vigil's voice. "That voice! You're the one who hacked the gunships!?"

Vigil's voice was smugger than usual. "Well, this primitive chest-beating primate certainly didn't. I was actually surprised the Broker's data security would be so sloppy for the heat control systems on the gunships."

The batarian named Sensat's eyes widened. "But... to hack the environmental systems... using a laser link... no one is that fast! You'd have to do nine hacks at once!"

Vigil merely gave amused, faint laughter. "Tandem links. So seventy two hacks at once. Trivial. I just hacked every weapon, armor, bot, and system on the battlefield out there. I'm – "

Shepard interrupted. "You're completely full of yourself. Now, hush, grown ups are talking." She turned to face Angel. "We're getting the turrets and what not back online, and I blocked the bridge. With the chaos out there as they sort out their systems, we should be able to move out without them seeing it. We'll get you out while the mechs and what we set up distract them. We have a way out they don't know about... hopefully."

Mordin gave a cluck sound and pulled off the helmet of Archangel gingerly, then sighed. "Ah! Round didn't break collar, excellent. But... will need cybernetic correction. Pity."

The voice that sounded next, from Archangel, now shorn of his modulator from his armor, struck Shepard almost numb. It sounded just like Garrus' voice, and the pain that brought shocked her. "...Gah. Story of my life, doc. Already have some in me now. Still better looking than Sidonis."

Shepard slowly turned and walked towards Archangel, before looking down. The face was washed in sticky blue blood and viscera around the neck and right jaw. But the visor was almost the same, if now done in black and a darker blue. The silvery plates and sharp blue lines were the same. The cybernetic eye was new, but the other one was the same steady, cool appraising eye she'd seen for the first time so long ago under the cherry blossom trees of the Citadel.

Her voice caught in her throat, and her voice was shaky. "...G-Garrus Vakarian...?"

Archangel's good eye blinked. "...do I know you? I mean...you are the Butcher..."

Shepard was silent for a long, long moment. Then with a single motion, she tapped her helmet control and let it slide back into the neck of her armor.

Soft black hair swung down to frame her features, and Garrus' good eye narrowed. "...So I died after all. This is the spirit world?"

Shepard felt dizzy, before she took a deep breath. "No, you aren't dead, Garrus."

The turian's eye narrowed in perplexity before slowly closing as Mordin did something. "Sedated him. Blood loss extensive. Other wounds, not properly treated. Malnutrition. Stress fractures." He glanced up at Angel. "Poor medical care?"

Angel shrugged, looking exhausted. "We've been running on empty a while, doc. Last couple of weeks have been complete hell. Right after you left the station, Aria put a lockdown on the cyberdocs. Ripper bought it earlier... we've only had Melenis for medical care."

Shepard shook her head, finally coming out of her daze "...Garrus is alive?"

Angel finally took a really good look at Shepard, and paled. "...What in the hell? You're... but you're dead... what the fuck is going on?"

Shepard took a deep breath. "Very long story. Not now. How did you meet... Garrus? I need to know."

Jack snorted. "Is now really the time for history hour, grandma?"

Shepard glanced back. "That's my best friend lying there half-dead. I have half a mind to fuck up this entire fucking station." A subtle flare of biotic energy sheened her form, and Jack held up both hands.

"Whoa. Fucking chill. Jeez. So, I mean, shit. He's alive. You should be fucking happy, right?"

Shepard turned back to Angel. "How."

Angel licked his lips. "We found him in the aftermath of the Burning. The news had reported him dead, and he told us... to keep his identity a secret. And... well. We did." He glanced at Mordin. "You were the one who treated him, doc."

Mordin shrugged, busy doing something with a medical tool to Garrus' neck. "Yes. But hardly recognizable. Missing arm, leg, most of face, eye. Did not recognize. Turians very similar to salarian eye without facial patterns." His thin mouth made a weak smile. "Good news... not dying. Bad news, not going to be able to fight anytime soon."

Shepard took a deep breath and nodded. "Finish patching everyone up enough to move in five." She gripped her ODIN tightly. "Miranda, did the Illusive Man know?"

Miranda's voice on the comm was wary. "I cannot see how he could know, Shepard...and if he did, it would have been more logical to tell you than hide the fact." Her voice turned wry. "He's very skilled but he doesn't know everything, after all."

O-TWCD-O

At the back of the column, Tarek wiped blood off of his armor, the twin barrels of his custom-built SIU teardown shotgun smoking. "Well?"

The Suns engineer on the haptic programming deck hot-spliced into the comms system of the battle-suit hulking above him nodded. "Code is clean, purge wiping now. Bots... standing down."

Tarek grimaced as he glanced to his other side, where Jentha's body was still contorted where it fell, gaping wounds torn into her side where one of the mechs had shot her point blank. While he thought females were weak, Jentha was always coldly efficient and professional, something that had caught his eyes years ago. Having her as an XO attracted recruits that eschewed the legendary womanizing of Vosque or female-hating terror of the main HQ unit.

Her death was a waste, but better her than him.

He shrugged it off a moment later and turned back to the engineer. "Get Darac on the line now, I want every fucking gunship we have out of the docks and into that warehouse in twenty. Send a demo team to find the life support and ventilation controls and blow them to fucking scrap, and if Aria sends a greenshit to complain blow her head off and send it back with a bill for the overwhelming fucking losses we just suffered."

The engineer nodded meekly and scrambled away, and Tarek turned back to see Relli's Kiss approaching. "Now what, genius? You've managed to get most of Durm's people killed and most of my force is a mess."

The asari smiled. "I went with my own plan B. We know Archangel is hurt bad and has no way out. I sent in Shift and five of my best war dancers to finish him and the Butcher off."

Tarek shook his head. "Are you fucking blind? That's Zaeed Massani that shot the fuck up out of my men out there! And a giant, fuck-all krogan that destroyed a battle-suit with a single shotgun blast! God knows what the fuck else was there, some lunatics firing a BRKR rail-gun...and you send one goddamned salarian and a handful of drugged up sluts?"

He turned away. "This is a fucking waste. I'm wiping this op once my gunships clear the warehouse, and you can try to take Aria on your own, you sanded up idiot."

Relli's Kiss smiled sweetly, then glanced at Durm. "Do you mind?"

The krogan gave her a hard laugh, and with a single elegant motion, the asari lashed her arm out. The thin green form of the eezo whip uncoiled and with a snap wrapped itself around Tarek's head, and he had time enough for one scream before it activated and his upper body came apart in sprays of blood and viscera.

With a smirk she flicked the whip clean, while the hulking forms of the Blood Pack krogan surrounding the APC glared hard at the Blue Suns soldiers standing there shocked. After a long moment, Relli's Kiss pointed to one of them, a senior Centurion human with graying hair and a cybernetic eye. "You. What's your name?"

The man glanced at the wreckage of his CO, and the krogan wielding heavy weapons surrounding him, and gave a thin, humorless smile. "Brent Raley, Omega Blue Suns acting CO, I expect. Should I tell the men there was an accident, or did Tarek die from the mechs after heroically trying to save Jentha?"

Durm gave another amused bark of laughter. "I like this one."

The asari inclined her head respectfully."That depends. What do you plan to do?"

The human folded his arms. "...Despite understanding why you just fragged my CO, he has a point, ma'am. Most of the Engineering corps is now dead or so badly wounded that they are non-effective, and so much of our equipment and order of battle requires technical support that without it we are not much better than the vorcha troopers."

At her skeptical look, he gave a sigh. "All of our battle-suits are down. Fifty percent of the mechs are nonoperative, all of the heavy mechs are down or need repairs, and we have one badly damaged gunship in the area, on top of thirty nine percent killed and eleven percent injured. I can order the men to knuckle up and go in again, but with the Butcher and Massani in there... some are going to run or refuse orders."

She nodded slowly. "And assuming Eclipse takes the brunt of finishing the Archangel?"

He scratched his chin. "Give me half an hour to pull down what we have left of our engineers from the Black Concourse and to round up and 'convince' some ex-Shadows and we can be back in the fight. Give me an hour to sort everything out and fab up some quick omni-gel repairs and flash programming and we can have our mechs and suits back up and running, at least some of them."

She glanced at Durm, then back at Raley. "You have an hour, Mr. Raley. We expect you'll keep to the agreement regarding Aria?"

He nodded slowly. "...As long as you can still get warlords to back you, yes. If none do..."

She nodded. "If none do then it's pointless and we go our separate ways. You have your hour, use it well."

He stepped away, barking orders to the other Blue Suns, and she smiled when she saw how quick he was to clear the area and surround himself with his own troopers. "He'll do well. Poor Tarek just lost his nerve."

Durm grunted. "If he ever had it. Still... this is a poorly roasted pyjak to feast on, you know. We could lay the assault on Aria to one side until we see how the Broker reacts."

She nodded. "And how successful Shift is."

O-TWCD-O

Vigil popped into existence over Shepard's shoulder as she watched Tali spray omni-foam over the entryway to the warehouse. "Primitive, problems."

She turned. "Story of my life, Shiny. Lay it on me."

The sphere pulsed. "The Suns engineers are... more clever than I suspected. They hotlinked their damned battle comms net to an extranet connection to their HQ, and have purged the hacks and overrides. I damaged many mechs, crippled or destroyed all battle-suits, and their forces are battered... but fresh Eclipse and Blood Pack units are even now streaming into Niftu, another thousand or more. Additionally, some of the smaller surviving gangs are coming along with them, probably to loot... but that still adds more firepower."

She scowled. "Wonderful. What else?"

"I am detecting incoming gunships moving out of the Mid-Docks interchange and towards the main cargo access tramline. Based on comms, they are headed here. They'll arrive at the entrance to the path in twenty minutes and find the hole we made into that path in five more minutes after that. They can outrun the trucks by a large margin, and we will need time to get people into the pinnace from the trucks. If they follow us..."

She sighed. "Can you hack them the way you did the earlier ones?"

The sphere pulsed again, more sluggishly. "Maybe... but probably not. These are more primitive gunships, and are less reliant on onboard VI management. I would suggest some kind of quick attempt at covering up our egress – perhaps with the wreckage of the gunships I did hack – would buy us more time, especially if the mechs can convince them people are still defending."

She nodded, and he continued. "Finally... there's someone approaching, by themselves, on foot. A salarian that my databanks have identified as a powerful biotic assassin known as Shift. He is moving at a very high rate of speed, and I am not sure the defenses and mechs will be able to hold off such a foe. What information I have on him makes him out to be very formidable."

Shepard gave a faint smile and tapped her helmet, sealing away her features. "Miranda. ETA."

The Cerberus's officer's voice was tense. "A good five minutes, Shepard. We're loading in the salarian, Erash, now. He may not survive. Kiala'Dost is finishing up with the topside array."

Shepard nodded. "Pick up the pace. I know these people are hurt bad and moving them through a hatch and onto the trucks is tricky but we have problems heading our way, big ugly ones. Gunships, more goons, and some asshole named Shift."

Miranda's voice became concerned. "Shepard, he's a very well known assassin...very nearly as dangerous as Tetrimus."

Shepard flexed her right hand. "Oh, goodie. This will be a practice run, then. Get everything going as fast as possible." She clicked off, turning to Angel, who was stooped over a portable haptic keyboard watching as Sensat did something. "Angel, your people will need to hustle."

He nodded. "Sensat's trying to lock up some of their datalines, but it's hopeless at this point." He clapped his armored hand on the slender batarian's shoulder. "Let's get moving."

The batarian's mouth formed a grim line. "...I guess so." With a sigh, he shut the computer and tossed it aside. "I admit I didn't expect to survive."

Shepard snorted. "We have yet to get out alive yet, so don't get too sure of that."

Grunt stomped forward. "The front entry is sealed and ready. Zaeed is still upstairs. Are more fools coming to fight?"

Shepard nodded sourly. "Yeah, they are."

O-TWCD-O

Shift nudged the burned, cracked helmet with his foot, smiling faintly as the baked, bloodstained skull rolled out of it, the last bits of flesh seared into the bone.

The entire passage, from the ceiling to the floor, was a chapel of death and destruction. Flickering bits of flames danced here and there, while corpses were scattered in flayed, pained and awkward lumps in a nearly complete carpet.

"Magnificent. Sloppy, but magnificent." He took off his wraparound glasses, revealing the multiphase cybernetic eyes linked with his blueware interface. "Ladies, I will need to proceed alone at this point – if you can slip around and do your deeds while I engage the Butcher I would be grateful."

The lead Eclipse sister, a purple-skinned asari with vulgar runes for an obscure sex and death cult popular on Omega, gave a thin-lipped smile. "Our goody-two-shoes sister has killed everything that has faced her, do you really think you can beat her?"

He shrugged, carefully taking off the expensive black leather coat he wore, revealing silver-laced cybernetic arms laced with glowing blue circuits and slim-line armor over the rest of his body. His hips were surmounted by criss-crossed belts, festooned with ammo pouches, knife hilts, and a pair of cut-down, modded Zeus pistols with shortened, widened barrels.

"I won't know until I take a bite of the forbidden fruit, now will I?"

With a smile, he laid the coat and his glasses on a ledge free of soot and blood, and then began calmly walking ahead, a faint sheen of biotic energy surrounding him.

The asari lieutenant shrugged. "When you drown, don't complain about the ocean being deep." She glanced at her partners, and they all triggered their haptic camo cloaks, slipping into shadows and trailing the salarian mystic at a distance.